Abstract
Impulsiveness is a pivotal personality trait representing a core domain in all major personality inventories. Recently, impulsiveness has been identified as an important modulator of cognitive processing, particularly in tasks that require the processing of large amounts of information. Although brain imaging studies have implicated the prefrontal cortex to be a common underlying representation of impulsiveness and related cognitive functioning, to date a fine-grain and detailed morphometric analysis has not been carried out. On the basis of ahigh-resolution magnetic resonance scans acquired in 1620 healthy adolescents (IMAGEN), the individual cortical thickness (CT) was estimated. Correlations between Cloninger's impulsiveness and CT were studied in an entire cortex analysis. The cluster identified was tested for associations with performance in perceptual reasoning tasks of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC IV). We observed a significant inverse correlation between trait impulsiveness and CT of the left superior frontal cortex (SFC; Monte Carlo Simulation P<0.01). CT within this cluster correlated with perceptual reasoning scores (Bonferroni corrected) of the WISC IV. On the basis of a large sample of adolescents, we identified an extended area in the SFC as a correlate of impulsiveness, which appears to be in line with the trait character of this prominent personality facet. The association of SFC thickness with perceptual reasoning argues for a common neurobiological basis of personality and specific cognitive domains comprising attention, spatial reasoning and response selection. The results may facilitate the understanding of the role of impulsiveness in several psychiatric disorders associated with prefrontal dysfunctions and cognitive deficits.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 12 print issues and online access
$259.00 per year
only $21.58 per issue
Rent or buy this article
Prices vary by article type
from$1.95
to$39.95
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
References
Carlson SRJ, Season C, Jacobs, Pauline C . Disinhibited characteristics and binge drinking among university student drinkers. Addict Behav 2010; 35: 242–251.
Fox HC, Bergquist KL, Peihua G, Rajita S . Interactive effects of cumulative stress and impulsivity on alcohol consumption. Alcohol Clin Exp Res 2010; 34: 1376–1385.
Owsley C, McGwin Jr G, McNeal SF . Impact of impulsiveness, venturesomeness, and empathy on driving by older adults. J Safety Res 2003; 34: 353–359.
Vitulano MLF, Paula J, Rathert, Jamie L . Delinquent peer influence on childhood delinquency: the moderating effect of impulsivity. J Psychopathol Behav Assess 2010; 32: 315–322.
Birkley EL, Smith GT . Recent advances in understanding the personality underpinnings of impulsive behavior and their role in risk for addictive behaviors. Curr Drug Abuse Rev 2011; 4: 215–212.
Galimberti E, Martoni RM, Cavallini MC, Erzegovesi S, Bellodi L . Motor inhibition and cognitive flexibility in eating disorder subtypes. Prog Neuropsychopharmacol Biol Psychiatry 2012; 36: 307–312.
Ekinci O, Albayrak Y, Ekinci AE, Caykoylu A . Relationship of trait impulsivity with clinical presentation in euthymic bipolar disorder patients. Psychiatry Res 2011; 190: 259–264.
Berlin HA, Rolls ET, Iversen SD . Borderline personality disorder, impulsivity, and the orbitofrontal cortex. Am J Psychiatry 2005; 162: 2360–2373.
Solanto MV, Schulz KP, Fan J, Tang CY, Newcorn JH . Event-related FMRI of inhibitory control in the predominantly inattentive and combined subtypes of ADHD. J Neuroimag 2009; 19: 205–212.
Strohle A, Stoy M, Wrase J, Schwarzer S, Schlagenhauf F, Huss M et al. Reward anticipation and outcomes in adult males with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. NeuroImage 2008; 39: 966–972.
Barratt ES . Impulsivity: integrating cognitive, behavioural, biological, and environmental data. In: McCown WG, Johnson JL, Shure MB (eds). The Impulsive Client: Theory, Research, and Treatment. American Psychological Association: Washington, DC, 1994, pp 39–56.
Cloninger CR . A unified biosocial theory of personality and its role in the development of anxiety states. Psychiatr Dev 1986; 4: 167–226.
Perales JC, Verdejo-Garcia A, Moya M, Lozano O, Perez-Garcia M . Bright and dark sides of impulsivity: performance of women with high and low trait impulsivity on neuropsychological tasks. J Clin Exp Neuropsychol 2009; 31: 927–944.
Romer D, Betancourt L, Giannetta JM, Brodsky NL, Farah M, Hurt H . Executive cognitive functions and impulsivity as correlates of risk taking and problem behavior in preadolescents. Neuropsychologia 2009; 47: 2916–2926.
Hur YM, Bouchard Jr TJ . The genetic correlation between impulsivity and sensation seeking traits. Behav Genet 1997; 27: 455–463.
Niv S, Tuvblad C, Raine A, Wang P, Baker LA . Heritability and longitudinal stability of impulsivity in adolescence. Behav Genet 2011; 42: 378–392.
Kazantseva AV, Gaisina DA, Malykh SB, Khusnutdinova EK . Role of dopamine transporter gene (DAT1) polymorphisms in personality traits variation. Genetika 2009; 45: 1110–1117.
Cloninger CR, Svrakic DM, Przybeck TR . A psychobiological model of temperament and character. Arch Gen Psychiatry 1993; 50: 975–990.
Cloninger CR . The psychobiological theory of temperament and character: comment on Farmer and Goldberg (2008). Psychol Assess 2008; 20: 292–299; discussion 300-294.
Baron J . Personality and intelligence. In: Sternberg RJ (ed). Handbook of Human Intelligence. Cambridge University Press: New York, NY, 1982.
Brebner S . Theoretical and empirical relationships between personality and intelligence. In: Saklofske MZDH (ed). International Handbook of Personality and Intelligence (Language of Science). Springer: Berlin, 1995, pp 322–348.
de Wit H, Flory JD, Acheson A, McCloskey M, Manuck SB . IQ and nonplanning impulsivity are independently associated with delay discounting in middle-aged adults. Person Indiv Differ 2007; 42: 111–121.
Dickmann S . Impulsivity and information processing. In: MCCown WGJJ, Shure MB (eds). The Impulsive Client: Theory and Treatment. American Psychological Association: Washington, DC, 1993, pp 151–184.
Schweizer K . Does impulsivity influence performance in reasoning. Person Indiv Differ 2002; 33: 1031–1043.
Harmon-Jones E, Barratt ES, Wigg C . Impulsiveness, aggression, reading, and the P300 of the event-related potential. Person Indiv Differ 1997; 22: 439–445.
Barratt ES . Perceptual–motor performance related to impulsiveness and anxiety. Percept Motor Skills 1967; 25: 485–492.
Bizot JC, Thiebot MH . Impulsivity as a confounding factor in certain animal tests of cognitive function. Brain Res Cogn Brain Res 1996; 3: 243–250.
Dalley JW, Everitt BJ, Robbins TW . Impulsivity, compulsivity, and top–down cognitive control. Neuron 2011; 69: 680–694.
Brannigan GGA, Thomas M . Howard impulsivity–reflectivity and children's intellectual performance. J Person Assess 1980; 44: 41–43.
Boes AD, Bechara A, Tranel D, Anderson SW, Richman L, Nopoulos P . Right ventromedial prefrontal cortex: a neuroanatomical correlate of impulse control in boys. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci 2009; 4: 1–9.
Gardini S, Cloninger CR, Venneri A . Individual differences in personality traits reflect structural variance in specific brain regions. Brain Res Bull 2009; 79: 265–270.
Kumari V, Barkataki I, Goswami S, Flora S, Das M, Taylor P . Dysfunctional, but not functional, impulsivity is associated with a history of seriously violent behaviour and reduced orbitofrontal and hippocampal volumes in schizophrenia. Psychiatry Res 2009; 173: 39–44.
Matsuo K, Nicoletti M, Nemoto K, Hatch JP, Peluso MA, Nery FG et al. A voxel-based morphometry study of frontal gray matter correlates of impulsivity. Hum Brain Mapp 2009; 30: 1188–1195.
Nopoulos P, Boes AD, Jabines A, Conrad AL, Canady J, Richman L et al. Hyperactivity, impulsivity, and inattention in boys with cleft lip and palate: relationship to ventromedial prefrontal cortex morphology. J Neurodev Disord 2010; 2: 235–242.
Schilling C, Kuhn S, Romanowski A, Banaschewski T, Barbot A, Barker GJ et al. Common structural correlates of trait impulsiveness and perceptual reasoning in adolescence. Hum Brain Mapp 2012; e-pub ahead of print.
Schilling C, Kuhn S, Romanowski A, Schubert F, Kathmann N, Gallinat J . Cortical thickness correlates with impulsiveness in healthy adults. NeuroImage 2012; 59: 824–830.
Van Schuerbeek P, Baeken C, De Raedt R, De Mey J, Luypaert R . Individual differences in local gray and white matter volumes reflect differences in temperament and character: a voxel-based morphometry study in healthy young females. Brain Res 2011; 1371: 32–42.
Greene SJ, Killiany RJ . Subregions of the inferior parietal lobule are affected in the progression to Alzheimer's disease. Neurobiol Aging 2010; 31: 1304–1311.
Kuhn S, Schubert F, Gallinat J . Reduced thickness of medial orbitofrontal cortex in smokers. Biol Psychiatry 2010; 68: 1061–1065.
Kuhn S, Schubert F, Gallinat J . Structural correlates of trait anxiety: reduced thickness in medial orbitofrontal cortex accompanied by volume increase in nucleus accumbens. J Affect Disord 2011; 134: 315–319.
McCauley SR, Wilde EA, Merkley TL, Schnelle KP, Bigler ED, Hunter JV et al. Patterns of cortical thinning in relation to event-based prospective memory performance three months after moderate to severe traumatic brain injury in children. Dev Neuropsychol 2010; 35: 318–332.
Raj A, Mueller SG, Young K, Laxer KD, Weiner M . Network-level analysis of cortical thickness of the epileptic brain. NeuroImage 2010; 52: 1302–1313.
Choi YY, Shamosh NA, Cho SH, DeYoung CG, Lee MJ, Lee JM et al. Multiple bases of human intelligence revealed by cortical thickness and neural activation. J Neurosci 2008; 28: 10323–10329.
Dickerson BC, Fenstermacher E, Salat DH, Wolk DA, Maguire RP, Desikan R et al. Detection of cortical thickness correlates of cognitive performance: reliability across MRI scan sessions, scanners, and field strengths. NeuroImage 2008; 39: 10–18.
Hutton C, Draganski B, Ashburner J, Weiskopf N . A comparison between voxel-based cortical thickness and voxel-based morphometry in normal aging. NeuroImage 2009; 48: 371–380.
Salat DH, Buckner RL, Snyder AZ, Greve DN, Desikan RS, Busa E et al. Thinning of the cerebral cortex in aging. Cereb Cortex 2004; 14: 721–730.
Goel V . Anatomy of deductive reasoning. Trends Cogn Sci 2007; 11: 435–441.
Szeremi A, Tarnok Z, Farkas L, Dotzi J, Gadoros J . Neurocognitive symptoms of childhood attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Psychiatr Hung 2005; 20: 299–311.
Schumann GL, Loth E, Banaschewski T, Barbot A, Barker G, Buchel C et al. The IMAGEN study: reinforcement-related behaviour in normal brain function and psychopathology. Mol Psychiatry 2010; 15: 1–12.
Goodman R, Ford T, Richards H, Gatward R, Meltzer H . The development and well-being assessment: description and initial validation of an integrated assessment of child and adolescent psychopathology. J Child Psychol Psychiatry 2000; 41: 645–655.
Cloninger CR . The Temperament and Character Inventory-Revised. Center for Psychobiology of Personality: St Louis, MO, 1999.
Farmer RF, Goldberg LR . A psychometric evaluation of the revised Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI-R) and the TCI-140. Psychol Assess 2008; 20: 281–291.
Wechsler A . WISC-IV. Technical and Interpretive Manual. Psychological Association: San Antonio, TX, 2003.
Fischl B, Dale AM . Measuring the thickness of the human cerebral cortex from magnetic resonance images. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 2000; 97: 11050–11055.
Dale AM, Fischl B, Sereno MI . Cortical surface-based analysis. I. Segmentation and surface reconstruction. NeuroImage 1999; 9: 179–194.
Fischl B, Sereno MI, Tootell RB, Dale AM . High-resolution intersubject averaging and a coordinate system for the cortical surface. Hum Brain Mapp 1999; 8: 272–284.
Genovese CR, Lazar NA, Nichols T . Thresholding of statistical maps in functional neuroimaging using the false discovery rate. NeuroImage 2002; 15: 870–878.
Elovainio M, Kivimaki M, Puttonen S, Heponiemi T, Pulkki L, Keltikangas-Jarvinen L . Temperament and depressive symptoms: a population-based longitudinal study on Cloninger's psychobiological temperament model. J Affect Disord 2004; 83: 227–232.
Voets NL, Hough MG, Douaud G, Matthews PM, James A, Winmill L et al. Evidence for abnormalities of cortical development in adolescent-onset schizophrenia. NeuroImage 2008; 43: 665–675.
Bookstein FL . ‘Voxel-based morphometry’ should not be used with imperfectly registered images. NeuroImage 2001; 14: 1454–1462.
Jones DK, Symms MR, Cercignani M, Howard RJ . The effect of filter size on VBM analyses of DT-MRI data. NeuroImage 2005; 26: 546–554.
Shaw P, Lerch J, Greenstein D, Sharp W, Clasen L, Evans A et al. Longitudinal mapping of cortical thickness and clinical outcome in children and adolescents with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Arch Gen Psychiatry 2006; 63: 540–549.
Lopez-Larson MP, Bogorodzki P, Rogowska J, McGlade E, King JB, Terry J et al. Altered prefrontal and insular cortical thickness in adolescent marijuana users. Behav Brain Res 2011; 220: 164–172.
Almeida LG, Ricardo-Garcell J, Prado H, Barajas L, Fernandez-Bouzas A, Avila D et al. Reduced right frontal cortical thickness in children, adolescents and adults with ADHD and its correlation to clinical variables: a cross-sectional study. J Psychiatr Res 2010; 44: 1214–1223.
Lawyer G, Bjerkan PS, Hammarberg A, Jayaram-Lindstrom N, Franck J, Agartz I . Amphetamine dependence and co-morbid alcohol abuse: associations to brain cortical thickness. BMC Pharmacol 2010; 10: 5.
Draganski B, Gaser C, Busch V, Schuierer G, Bogdahn U, May A . Neuroplasticity: changes in grey matter induced by training. Nature 2004; 427: 311–312.
Horn NR, Dolan M, Elliott R, Deakin JF, Woodruff PW . Response inhibition and impulsivity: an fMRI study. Neuropsychologia 2003; 41: 1959–1966.
Beck A, Schlagenhauf F, Wustenberg T, Hein J, Kienast T, Kahnt T et al. Ventral striatal activation during reward anticipation correlates with impulsivity in alcoholics. Biol Psychiatry 2009; 66: 734–742.
Aron AR, Robbins TW, Poldrack RA . Inhibition and the right inferior frontal cortex. Trends Cogn Sci 2004; 8: 170–177.
Rieger M, Gauggel S, Burmeister K . Inhibition of ongoing responses following frontal, nonfrontal, and basal ganglia lesions. Neuropsychology 2003; 17: 272–282.
Chambers CD, Bellgrove MA, Stokes MG, Henderson TR, Garavan H, Robertson IH et al. Executive ‘brake failure’ following deactivation of human frontal lobe. J Cogn Neurosci 2006; 18: 444–455.
Buchsbaum BR, Greer S, Chang WL, Berman KF . Meta-analysis of neuroimaging studies of the Wisconsin card-sorting task and component processes. Hum Brain Mapp 2005; 25: 35–45.
Congdon E, Canli T . A neurogenetic approach to impulsivity. J Pers 2008; 76: 1447–1484.
Nambu A, Tokuno H, Takada M . Functional significance of the cortico-subthalamo-pallidal ‘hyperdirect’ pathway. Neurosci Res 2002; 43: 111–117.
Xue G, Aron AR, Poldrack RA . Common neural substrates for inhibition of spoken and manual responses. Cereb Cortex 2008; 18: 1923–1932.
Patton JH, Stanford MS, Barratt ES . Factor structure of the Barratt impulsiveness scale. J Clin Psychol 1995; 51: 768–774.
Antshel KM, Faraone SV, Stallone K, Nave A, Kaufmann FA, Doyle A et al. Is attention deficit hyperactivity disorder a valid diagnosis in the presence of high IQ? Results from the MGH Longitudinal Family Studies of ADHD. J Child Psychol Psychiatry 2007; 48: 687–694.
Dickman S . Impulsivity, arousal, and attention. Person Indiv Differ 2000; 28: 563–582.
Marsh DM, Dougherty DM, Mathias CW, Moeller FG, Hicks LR . Comparison of women with high and low trait impulsivity using behavioral models of response-disinhibition and reward-choice. Person Indiv Differ 2002; 33: 1291–1310.
Whitney P, Jameson T, Hinson JM . Impulsiveness and executive control of working memory. Person Indiv Differ 2004; 37: 417–428.
Russo PM, De Pascalis V, Varriale V, Barratt ES . Impulsivity, intelligence and P300 wave: an empirical study. Int J Psychophysiol 2008; 69: 112–118.
Colom R, Jung RE, Haier RJ . General intelligence and memory span: evidence for a common neuroanatomic framework. Cogn Neuropsychol 2007; 24: 867–878.
Ehrlich S, Brauns S, Yendiki A, Ho BC, Calhoun V, Schulz SC et al. Associations of cortical thickness and cognition in patients with schizophrenia and healthy controls. Schizophr Bull 2012; e-pub ahead of print.
Hartberg CB, Lawyer G, Nyman H, Jonsson EG, Haukvik UK, Saetre P et al. Investigating relationships between cortical thickness and cognitive performance in patients with schizophrenia and healthy adults. Psychiatry Res 2010; 182: 123–133.
Klingberg T . Development of a superior frontal–intraparietal network for visuo-spatial working memory. Neuropsychologia 2006; 44: 2171–2177.
Petermann FP . Ulrike. Hamburg-Wechsler-Intelligenztest für Kinder -IV Manual Übersetzung und Adaptation der WISC-IV von David Wechsler. Verlag Hans Huber, Hogrefe AG, Testverlag: Bern, 2007.
Wager TD, Smith EE . Neuroimaging studies of working memory: a meta-analysis. Cogn Affect Behav Neurosci 2003; 3: 255–274.
Fan J, McCandliss BD, Fossella J, Flombaum JI, Posner MI . The activation of attentional networks. NeuroImage 2005; 26: 471–479.
Jackson MC, Morgan HM, Shapiro KL, Mohr H, Linden DE . Strategic resource allocation in the human brain supports cognitive coordination of object and spatial working memory. Hum Brain Mapp 2011; 32: 1330–1348.
Konrad K, Neufang S, Thiel CM, Specht K, Hanisch C, Fan J et al. Development of attentional networks: an fMRI study with children and adults. NeuroImage 2005; 28: 429–439.
Schneider MF, Krick CM, Retz W, Hengesch G, Retz-Junginger P, Reith W et al. Impairment of fronto-striatal and parietal cerebral networks correlates with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) psychopathology in adults—a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study. Psychiatry Res 2010; 183: 75–84.
Kubicka L, Matejcek Z, Dytrych Z, Roth Z . IQ and personality traits assessed in childhood as predictors of drinking and smoking behaviour in middle-aged adults: a 24-year follow-up study. Addiction 2001; 96: 1615–1628.
Luby JL, Svrakic DM, McCallum K, Przybeck TR, Cloninger CR . The junior temperament and character inventory: preliminary validation of a child self-report measure. Psychol Rep 1999; 84 (Part 2): 1127–1138.
Cloninger CR, Sigvardsson S, Bohman M . Childhood personality predicts alcohol abuse in young adults. Alcohol Clin Exp Res 1988; 12: 494–505.
Acknowledgements
We are grateful to the Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes for funding Christina Schilling's PhD project. IMAGEN receives research funding from the European Community's Sixth Framework Programme (LSHM-CT-2007-037286). This paper reflects only the author's views and the Community is not liable for any use that may be made of the information contained therein.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Consortia
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Schilling, C., Kühn, S., Paus, T. et al. Cortical thickness of superior frontal cortex predicts impulsiveness and perceptual reasoning in adolescence. Mol Psychiatry 18, 624–630 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/mp.2012.56
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/mp.2012.56
Keywords
This article is cited by
-
Linked patterns of biological and environmental covariation with brain structure in adolescence: a population-based longitudinal study
Molecular Psychiatry (2021)
-
Neurocognitive patterns dissociating semantic processing from executive control are linked to more detailed off-task mental time travel
Scientific Reports (2020)
-
Distinct brain structure and behavior related to ADHD and conduct disorder traits
Molecular Psychiatry (2020)
-
The IMAGEN study: a decade of imaging genetics in adolescents
Molecular Psychiatry (2020)
-
Empathizing associates with mean diffusivity
Scientific Reports (2019)